At Portland TrailBlazers Jan. 7th, 10:00 PM

Tay and AI played 44 minutes each. Neither sat at all in the 2nd half. That is poor management. Poor coaching.

Regardless of what else Curry did or did not do in this game, he failed to understand that players play better in crunch time when they have had some rest during the half.

AI is not 22 any more. Someone needs to get him the message, and send a copy to Curry.

And someone needs to make Curry understand the consequences of continuing to play Prince these kind of minutes. It ain't going to be pretty when the playoffs arrive and Tay can't play worth a darn.

Meanwhile, yes, Stuckey is young, but that does not make him automatically able to handle 40 minute games either.

Sure, someday, Rip will come back. But the time is now to address this issue. There is just no excuse to overplay your players. Not for regular season wins. When the playoffs get here, sure, do what it takes. But for now, find a rotation that works, to where each player gets some rest in each half of the game. Until Curry has done that, he has not even began to be a good coach.

- Pistons shooting by quarter - 0.632 / 0.563 / 0.471 / 0.350
Tired? Perhaps so. I remember around the six minute mark of the third thinking it was time to get some folks out of the game to keep legs fresh for the fourth. Nope, MC ran them into the ground as Lee says.

- Starting guards shot 32% (31 FGA), the rest of the team 63% (41 FGA)
AI looked good in the second (3-3), but Stuck floundered all night, both shooting badly and repeatedly crashing into the Portland defense.

- The game was lost on an 11-2 Portland run that took away most of the lead starting halfway through the third, coinciding with AJ leaving the game with his 4th foul. Aldridge went off and it was neck and neck from that point on and no energy from the visitors. Maybe if Amir hadn't picked up two dumb early fouls he might have still been in the game and maybe the run doesn't happen. Bringing him back to pick up his 5th after the run was over seemed kind of silly.

And no, I don't think MC has ever heard of the two for one concept. If there was ever a place to make sure you got two decent shots, it was with forty-some seconds left in the 4th last night. Maybe the execution failed, but I didn't see any sense of urgency to get a good quick shot after the timeout.

This is the kind of loss you can take. Pistons played hard, they just didnt have it from their starting guards tonight.

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Listen Roscoe, I have to get up at 5:30 AM, kids to school, etc. I cannot stay up until 1:00 AM on a weekday. In addition, I am a school counselor. I have to be alert and awake. That being said, I will not dvr anymore.

You know what really wasn't working well last night? When Tay played point forward. If you have game film, cue it back up and look at these possessions.

Every single one of them resulted in Tay dribbling up the court carefully with his back to the basket, defender tight on his back, and AI doing a full circle around the baseline to eventually come to the top and take the hand-off from him. Each time this happened, AI got the ball with approximately 11 seconds, tried to penetrate, hit a dead-end, and we ended up forcing a terrible shot.

Tay can avoid turnovers at the point, but he can't be a threat to score because the defenders don't have to give him any space.

One other nit. What is the point in taking Amir out of the game with 5 fouls? I know he's fouling a lot and all, but don't artificially foul him out of the game if he's so helpful. Last night was typical for him in that he led the team in +/- in his 17 minutes of hacking. As a result of his 5 fouls, the Blazers made 4 free throws.

Foul 1- sort of needless. He touched Aldridge's hand barely after the release of a jump shot.

Foul 2- intentional bear hug on G.O. This is a good example of what he shouldn't do. Not his man, too late to help, and fouling a strong 7 footer from behind on a dunk attempt never works. Picking up foul #2 so early in a game when you've had recent foul struggles is really self defeating.

After that, he was at the mercy of the refs and either had to play passive or just say fouls be damned. Of course he chose the latter and so many fouls ensued that MC lost count and accidentally pulled him before Amir could deliver the game winning 6th foul, offensive rebound, or altered shot.

Listen Roscoe, I have to get up at 5:30 AM, kids to school, etc. I cannot stay up until 1:00 AM on a weekday. In addition, I am a school counselor. I have to be alert and awake. That being said, I will not dvr anymore.

Every single one of them resulted in Tay dribbling up the court carefully with his back to the basket, defender tight on his back, and AI doing a full circle around the baseline to eventually come to the top and take the hand-off from him. Each time this happened, AI got the ball with approximately 11 seconds, tried to penetrate, hit a dead-end, and we ended up forcing a terrible shot.

Tay does ok bringing the ball up without any pressure, but anytime he gets covered in the backcourt it's a threat for an 8 second call. Better execution on any one of those possessions might have generated a win.

One other nit. What is the point in taking Amir out of the game with 5 fouls? I know he's fouling a lot and all, but don't artificially foul him out of the game if he's so helpful. Last night was typical for him in that he led the team in +/- in his 17 minutes of hacking. As a result of his 5 fouls, the Blazers made 4 free throws.

I wondered about that too. Or even after the 4th, the one that led to the Portland run. He may as well foul out as sit.

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And yeah, it only takes a couple of early dumber fouls and he's sunk. The four spot is going to pick up fouls so he can't use them up with non-productive ones.

Its a good lose in that Stuckey is now getting attention paid to him, and now he has 3 months to learn to deal with it. we have players not used to being in the 4th quarter pressure situations learning to play close games.

Note to refs... Amir fouls enough on his own you don't need to call phantom fouls.... "I'm running away from the play and get backed into and I committed a foul..... ?"

Yet another game that we could have really used the good max.... why does he only show up once ever 7-10 days... Lee has commented on how he has been great in some of our best wins of the year, and I agree... to bad he has to balance it out with so many duds in between.

When sheed's back, I just don't see Max being given mins.. he's not earning them now, that and McDyess's mins can get back down to the 18-20 where I think he's best. Brown on the other hand has, he is what he is but he seems to be fitting in nicely, and our guards are getting better at giving him dump off passes that he can handle. AI in particular is doing a nice job at that.

Rip being back will hopefully cut Prince, AI, and Stuckeys mins back by close to 10 each.... that way AA should keep his mins that he's earned.

I don't know I come out of last nights lose more positive then a few of our wins in the last 2 weeks.... we can't win them all folks.

Its a good lose in that Stuckey is now getting attention paid to him, and now he has 3 months to learn to deal with it.

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Interesting point. Stuckey got discovered by the league at the end of last year and saw some new things when this season started and I think did adapt. Everyone though will see tape of last night and how well Portland trapped him. I think you're right - time for the next step on the growth curve.

Listen Roscoe, I have to get up at 5:30 AM, kids to school, etc. I cannot stay up until 1:00 AM on a weekday. In addition, I am a school counselor. I have to be alert and awake. That being said, I will not dvr anymore.

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NYP, I am of course kidding. You are very superstitious about that dvr. Also, I'm not advising causing disharmony in the home. The Pistons have to learn to play through it, just like they played through the podcast. ;)

Its a good lose in that Stuckey is now getting attention paid to him, and now he has 3 months to learn to deal with it. we have players not used to being in the 4th quarter pressure situations learning to play close games.

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I don't know I come out of last nights lose more positive then a few of our wins in the last 2 weeks.... we can't win them all folks.

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Yup. I'm happy Stuck saw this tonight, and not in the first round of the playoffs.

This was the first game where I really thought we were severely undermanned and really needed RIP and Sheed. In what capacity and when is up for debate, but they both would have had a positive influence - at least a 2 point one

Any good PG will punish the defense for swarming around him. Stuckey will surely adjust to this. If you get triple teamed and you have AI on the court with you, it's really not too difficult to find the answer.